The present invention relates to lamps, especially lamps which contain light emitting diodes.
Existing light tile systems typically require an extruded aluminum housing that must be attached to a metal frame of some sort. These frames are ground supported by an external structure or make use of rigging systems so they may be suspended from a rated point.
There are some LED tile systems that are transparent but that require frames and ground support structures. The systems require secondary support structures in order to create walls of significant size. This is an additional cost and the structure tends to work against the goal of creating a transparent wall system. Many of these systems are tied to the window size of the building as designed. These are custom systems using extremely large light guides which limits the amount of information that can be communicated.
Alternative direct view LED systems are available in tubes and modules but these systems are not intended to provide the fill level (the percentage of the area of a pixel which generates the image) that a tile system provides. These systems do allow some level of transparency through variable pixel spacing or use in slat system. Examples of such systems are the Barco MiPix, the Opto Tech Intelligent Cluster, Lumino, and the GLEC system.
Although some of these systems can be effectively integrated into the structure of the building they do not themselves constitute a wall or a structure. Any system must account for long term service since an installation may stand for decades. LED systems embedded in glass are an expensive problem.